A Nigerian scholar, Raphael Ebiefung, has been awarded the prestigious Grace Jordan McFadden Professor Programme Fellowship at the University of South Carolina.
A statement issued by the Institution noted that the “highly competitive fellowship” recognises academic leaders who advance knowledge and address pressing social challenges.
Ebiefung, a doctoral researcher and a one-time assistant lecturer and librarian at Top-Faith University, Nigeria, who specialises in human-AI interaction and information behaviour, is expected to join “an elite group of scholars shaping the future of higher education and interdisciplinary inquiry,” the University said.
He said, “I am deeply honoured to receive the Grace Jordan McFadden Fellowship. It is a testament to the resilience and potential of young Nigerian academics striving to make a global impact.
“My research seeks to understand the dynamics of human behaviour in relation to AI systems. This area is critical as we move deeper into the digital age,” he explained.
The scholarship is one of the most distinguished graduate recognitions at the university and is awarded annually to an outstanding researcher in the biological, physical, and mathematical sciences.
Similarly, Nigerian-born researcher, Peter Ngene, won a €2m grant from the European Research Council for his project in 2024.
Ngene, an associate professor at the Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, was among seven researchers from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, who won the grant. According to a statement by his university, Ngene’s work focused on the “interface-mediated fast ionic conductivity in nanocomposite solid-state electrolytes.”
He said the goal was to unravel the reason why the ionic conductivity of certain solids can increase or decrease by thousands of fold at their interface with other solids.
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